YANKEES SUCK!: If you've been following baseball for awhile (especially if you've lived in Boston) chances are you've heard the phrase "Yankees Suck" an awful lot- and usually, it hasn't been true. Yes, the idea of the Yankees existing may suck, or of their being good may suck, but clearly the team has won at a consistent level ever since 1995, and still has won more championships than any other franchise in baseball history. On the field, clearly, they don't suck.
Well, now they do. Prior to winning tonight against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, the Yanks were going through their worst stretch since they started winning pennants again in 1996: five straight losses, including eight straight at home, a 2-9 record in their previous 11 games, and even headlines from the back page of the New York Post that George Steinbrenner may want Joe Torre gone- despite winning four championships in five years (contrast that with Minnesota, when two championships in five years were enough to keep Tom Kelly around as Twins manager for eight straight losing seasons, and his career ended not with his firing but with retirement).
The nadir of the Yank slide was Roger Clemens' failure to win his 300th game at home, on Memorial Day, against the Red Sox. Hell, maybe it's nothing. Probably, it's nothing. But if the Red Sox win the AL East this year in route to the Yankees going the way of the 2002 St. Louis Rams, that Memorial Day loss by Roger will be looked at as the turning point- mark my words.
CJ Sullivan has it right in today's Billboard: getting into the playoffs every year has made Yankee fans arrogant as hell- and they've forgotten how special it is to win a championship for the first time, or at least for the first time in a generation. Yea, 'cause a two-week slump really, really sucks when you feel you're always entitled to a championship.
